Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: ‘God told me to’ resign

The 86-year-old pope emeritus explains his reasoning for his resignation last February, claiming God told him to abdicate in a “mystical experience.” Benedict left his position as leader of the Catholic Church in order to dedicate his life to prayer.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

the items that are causing a bit of discussion online. trending from reuters, breaking his silence. pope emeritus
benedict
is now speaking out for the first time since he resigned. he's speaking out about why he stepped down. according to a catholic news agency report,
benedict
says he reached the decision because god told me to. the former pope told an unnamed person that god didn't speak to him in a vision but in what
benedict
called a mystical experience. apparently it was enough to inspire the 86-year-old to resign and dedicate his life to prayer rather than to continue as the pope. i think a lot of people have been wondering about that.

>>fascinating. wish we could know more about it, but obviously to do something so extraordinary and almost unprecedented.